Gandalf is gorgeous as well as complex to draw, which is like his character in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (now a movie that has won 17 Academy awards). In these stories, Gandalf appears as a wizard, member and later the head (after Saruman's betrayal and fall) of the order known as the Istari, as well as leader of the Fellowship of the Ring and the army of the West. In The Lord of the Rings, he is initially known as Gandalf the Grey, but after returning from death as Gandalf the White. I have categorized this tutorial as advanced because of the details in his hair, eyebrows, and beard. I hope you enjoy this tutorial. Please fav, vote, and comment. Thank you all. Peace and love to you.

How to Draw Gandalf, Lord of the Rings

STEP 1.

Draw the oval lightly with a No.2 or HB pencil. Make sure you draw it as seen in the picture.

STEP 2.

Now draw in the bisecting red line to balance his facial features.

STEP 3.

Sketch lightly the crescent red lines for hair line and head mass.

STEP 4.

You can draw in the lines a. for eyebrows, b. for eyes, c. for nose, d. for mouth, e. for shoulder placements.

STEP 5.

Now draw Gandalf's winged eyebrows and eyes with bags.

STEP 6.

Observe where Gandalf's features appear in relation to the guidelines. Draw in his brow, left shadow mark, nose, and right outline of face.

STEP 7.

Watch closely how Gandalf's mustache, small portion of his mouth and beard relate to the guidelines. As you draw, you will have more accuracy. Also sketch in the hair strands in his beard.

STEP 8.

If you haven't already, you can erase your guidelines. When you sketch in his hair, add those straight lines and curls. Try staying close to the lines that represent the direction & curls of his hair. This will help as you shade it in. Also finish shoulder.

STEP 9.

I made this line drawing especially for you if you don't want to do the pencil shading and blending part. Otherwise, let us continue to the pencil drawing part.

STEP 10.

Here is the outline done with a 0.7mm mechanical pencil. Look closely and see if your lines look something like this. You can erase if certain areas like the eyes or nose don't line up. Be patient with this, it's not as complicated as you may think. As you do more pictures, this will come easier to you.

STEP 11.

Before we go any further, I want to mention some tools I used, which is the famous white acrylic and also sandpaper. While shading Gandalf's robe, I used sandpaper. In the upcoming steps, I want to show you some great uses of a pencil.

STEP 12.

Best thing you can do when drawing hair is to establish the general shape then work in the main strands of hair by holding your pencil at a 45 degree angle for stroking and coverage. Then, as in the third picture, you can work in more details. But here's a TIP! Don't draw a straight line for the hairline. Do tiny strokes to represent beginning of hair at its root. Look at real people and see their hairline isn't a straight line. Practice and your picture will look more realistic

STEP 13.

The picture that goes with this step shows two different ways to hold your pencil to acquire certain effects. OVERHAND: Holding a sharpened pencil in normal writing form with fingers in the middle or near the lead gives you great control and thin/detailed strokes. UNDERHAND: Holding the pencil at a 45 degrees or near level to the table with end of pencil under your palm with pencil on the flat side, gives you large shading coverage. With the No.2 pencil, you have the exposed lead side to shade with. But for a wider swath, use that Cretacolor Monolith graphite pencil with no wood casing. The whole sharpened portion is all lead, like in the step's picture. Practice the toning values to help you with control.

STEP 14.

PENCIL STROKES & TONE, SHADING, TEXTURE -- For your convenience, I have inserted this step with different pencils, strokes to use. And you can study the shapes that make up this drawing universe, along with tone, shading, and texture.

STEP 15.

The picture here is a great exercise for value shading. I've got a little secret tip for you to make things easier. You can download this to your desktop. First click on the picture to have access to full size. By right clicking on your mouse, you can select "Save Image As." It should save to your desktop.

STEP 16.

After printing out a number of the above template, practice shading in the values like this picture. You become familiar with this shading technique that gives you more control and confidence.

STEP 17.

I confess I have never done an elderly person of this magnitude before. I was like, "What do I do with his beard & hair... there's so much of it." Nervous about this first time I resorted to sketching in the details with my 0.7mm HB trusty mechanical pencil.

STEP 18.

With my blending stump, I smoothed out the sketch lines and added texture lines to his robe with my 0.7mm mechanical with F (fine) lead.

STEP 19.

This is the first start with the pastel application. If you do the whole picture in a pencil sketch, this is where you would sketch in small circles or lines to shade the areas. It would take hours upon hours to cover all that area with a pencil. I chose to shade with pastels. In a few strokes I've got area coverage. Applied medium gray to face. Medium dark gray to hair, left side of shaded face, and shoulders. Looks like a mess. That's how a beginning project will appear. Keep patience with you and keep applying those layers of whites, grays & blacks. You'll have a great outcome.

STEP 20.

Here I used my blending stump to "draw" in more lines, add more shading to his beard and side of face. I need to whiten areas like some hair curls on his beard and hair strands on his shoulder. I "kneaded" to give a shine on his nose, too. *wink* After those adjustments, I sprayed the picture with "Krylon Workable Fixatif" to adhere the pencil & pastel to the paper for a non-smudging and workable surface.

STEP 21.

The first picture, I sketched in the background with my 9B graphite crayon and very dark areas in the picture & added dark gray pastels, which took away most of Gandalf's robe detail (arghhh). The second picture, I blended with my stump and added lines to his hair and beard. I took a medium gray pastel stick and dabbed his beard to add texture and depth. I also darkened his robe and darkened the texture lines with sandpaper underneath to add that burlap feel.

STEP 22.

I have to say this...OH, I'M GLAD I'M FINISHED... how about you? This was one heck of a learning experience. I can't believe the details that went into his hair and beard. But I think he's handsome elderly man, so that encouraged me along. *wink* You don't have to go to great lengths like I did. I took the pure white opaque watercolor and added highlights to his hair strands, mustache/beard (which mixed with the gray pastel giving a nice blend), and sparkles in his eye. I am totally satisfied. And I hope you are too with your creation. To help out with specific areas of highlights, tone, texture, etc., the next two following steps will show you.

STEP 23.

Without highlights, your picture would have a flat appearance. Click on this picture to learn how to make your own picture POP out!

STEP 24.

Click on this picture to see how Tone, Shading, Texture, and Reflective Light affects Ian McKellen as Gandalf, who is a brilliant actor! I am closing out now. But you all have been wonderful and it has been a great pleasure to do this tutorial with you. Please fav, comment, and vote here. And I will definitely reply back soon or eventually. Love, peace, happiness, success, and more beautiful days to ya! *hug* *blowkiss*

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